SPOILERS-Super Secret Lurker Thread

[plako]

Shoot the Moon is messing up Serdoa and WarriorKnight. I considered, if I should mention about it, but maybe it is better not to interfere. He is probably in a position to claim the horses in the NW since Meatbalz start up seems pretty slow.

Serdoa continues to gamble. Planting a forward city with only warrior defending, when Shoot the Moon can even see inside the city seems quite risky. City is also pretty far from his capital and I suspect it takes few turns before he can get Axe there. Shoot the Moon would have easy task of razing it, but it seems he prefers to expand "peacefully" instead of building couple of axes.

[plako]

But I had to pour many hammers in forces right now due to India. Nobody else does harass me - so I guess, India sets us both back at the moment.

In reality Shoot the Moon has been playing builder game and mainly built units for self defense.

It seems to playing field seems pretty even now that is good news for us lurkers. Ad hoc is clearly behind, but can probably found his 2nd city soonish. Serdoa was able to claim lot of land with his settlement although it will take quite some time before he can get land improved and it is quite vulnerable so he is in 4th position. I also suspect WK will settle his next city towards him. WK is somewhat delayed because of Ad hoc's rush so he is 3rd and Meatbalz+Shoot the Moon are leading and soon will have their 3rd cities up.

[plako]

Since no one objected, I took a look at the saves. I didn't yet take screenshots, but maybe later during the weekend. The number of workers is probably best indication what is going on:
Shoot and WK both 6, Serdoa 4, Meatbalz 2 and Ad hoc 1. This is also pretty much current ranking of civs. WK and Shoot leading the back. Meatbalz and Serdoa middle group and Ad hoc behind.

Here are some random observations from the players:

Shoot the Moon is doing best, but we already know his situation so no more comments needed.

WK isn't far behind. He'll settle the 3rd city soon and will have horses hooked up. We know his situation also pretty well so no need for further comments.

Meatbalz has founded 3rd city far west in the coast that seems a mistake to me, when he could be claiming land from his rivals. He lacks workers. He also has his capital pretty much empty. However I think it is pretty reasonable idea to try to block Shoot the Moon's access to horses with Archers.

Serdoa isn't far behind MB or pretty even actually with more workers. He will soon found his 3rd city on the coast in the east. This settlement is better than MBs since he alredy has settled one city towards his neighbour. That is also his biggest problem. He has concentrated most of his warriors and axes there and left only 1 warrior on his capital. As Shoot has indicated so far that city has only been a burden.

Ad hoc have't recovered from the early rush and he is building Stonehenge without Masonry that seems big waste to me. Tech masonry while building another worker would basically give him additional worker and wouldn't delay Stonehenge. He has 2 cities, but 2nd one is pretty far SW and basically unimproved. He techs Mathematics. Maybe trying to get very early Catas, but then again he probably should tech Masonry before Maths.

[plako]

Some screenshots. Only one that has scouted central area is Serdoa.

[Twinkletoes89]

Wow Ad-hoc really has suffered big time.

Unimproved Cows, Copper, Riverside Wheat (!), 2 floodplains(!) and his worker is on a grassland hill??

He needs to crank out another 3 workers bloody quickly if he isn't going to fall even further behind!

[plako]

Wow Ad-hoc really has suffered big time.

Unimproved Cows, Copper, Riverside Wheat (!), 2 floodplains(!) and his worker is on a grassland hill??

He needs to crank out another 3 workers bloody quickly if he isn't going to fall even further behind!

Yeah. He used a bit too much resources on building dogs and now going for Stonehenge right after that is too much.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Thanks for the pictures Plako!

Agreed the stonehenge build when he can see his opponents out-expanding him is foolish.

If there's any silver lining, at least no one has expanded in his direction at all so he has some room if he pushes for it.

And he could always go for the islands!

[Bobchillingworth]

I assume that he wants the Henge' ASAP so that all of his new cities can spam Totem pole-enhanced archers to defend, but I agree that he should be focusing on other priorities first.

[The Reverend Doctor]

Re: Stonehenge


The 'henge has great synergy with his leader/civ... an extra happy and beefed up archers, but who does he think he's racing to the wonder.

Isn't everyone else creative? Or at least has terraces and will get culture that way.

I bet he could get 4 cities down before having to think about building it.

[plako]

New screenshots. Some notable things:
* Shooot the Moon has 4 cities and settler ready for 5th city. There aren't that good spots in the outer ring after that. I think he has some 8 workers
* Ad hoc has 3 workers so things are looking a bit better
* MB is overdoing his military compared to others. E.g. he has 7 archers. Only 3 workers
* Serdoa is getting Oracle. If he would delay it 1 turn he could get Feudalism, but I'm not sure what he does. Metal Casting and CoL are possible for him now
* WK has killed 1 of Ads Dogs. There is also funny situation in the border between him and Ad. Ad's dog is sitting in the spot marked City?, 2S from WK's quechua
* Some of the builds visible are chosen by me (we actually see to the future here )